022

Adam left the cave in a daze to go home, on the way he met quite a few people; but they were all acquaintances and greeted him with friendly smiles.

The corridors in hex 10 seemed to be quite a bit cleaner than before; which surprised Adam, it seemed that someone had been cleaning them, even some lamps were repaired by some unknown person.

What struck Adam was that the oil lamps were no longer the same, but they rebuilt the original ones, that is, the little marble angels; such an ability was not that common on this floor.

Adam took a turn in one of the corners of the corridors and managed to see the person in charge, he was an old man with only a few white hairs on his head and a very battered body, a beast in rags, but his rags were the remains of a violet robe. The old man with trembling hands cleaned the dust in the corridors while he sang a nursery rhyme:

—Malbrough s'en va-t-en guerre, mironton, mironton, mirontaine,...

Adam tried not to disturb the man singing, he didn't know him and this floor was full of crazy people. Also, his dad had told him not to talk to strangers.

But when Adam walked down the hall, the old man managed to look at his box of school supplies and asked:

—Middle floor 4 of 5, hex 8 of 18? What does a student do living here?

Adam stopped and turned around, he knew his dad told him not to talk to strangers, but he needed to tell him something, so the old man wouldn't realize he was a student; his father told him that it had to be kept a secret at all costs.

So he looked at the old man cleaning and told him:

—I'm not a student at the school, my dad teaches me!

—Your dad can read and live here...—the old man said as if trying to reach an important conclusion.—My God, you're living with a lunatic! Don't you want to come with me? I could take care of you from that lunatic.

—No, of course not— Adam said, that was a stern order from his father: never go anywhere with a stranger.

—Oh…—It seems that the old man understood that he was almost kidnapping a boy and changed his focus— If one day your father loses his mind completely, go to the shelf in Hexagon 2. Give him this page, and he'll take you to a better place than this. If they ask who sent you, tell them his name doesn't matter, he's dead.

—I don't want the page, thanks—Adam said without turning around and walking straight out the door. He didn't want to accept anything from a stranger, and less if they were related to bookshelves.

The old man looked at the boy's back and the piece of paper in his hands already in bones, then he looked at the boy further and further away and shouted:

—Wartime is coming, young man! Be strong and fear not; because the shelves will last forever!

But Adam didn't turn to see the old man, he knew that crazy people would say strange things, it was better to ignore their crazy things or one could go crazy too.

—No one wants children anymore... —said the old man in rags crying, with anger, while he began to clean with even more violence —Only the dying old men who can no longer have them...

Adam managed to hear the old man's cries just when he was about to close the door of his house and meet his father, as always in his corner, crouched down, looking at the wall, looking for some meaning in that corner or in life. .